Harnessing AI in the court system

Australia’s court system is diverse, but its courts face common operational constraints. Across every level of the hierarchy and every jurisdiction, courts operate under distinct caseloads and resource limits. Yet the case backlog has grown 85 per cent to 76,000 since 2016, and rising expenditure has not reversed it. Real court expenditure rose 9 per cent over five years, and full-time equivalent (FTE) staff per 1,000 finalisations rose 34 per cent in Magistrates courts. The persistence of delay through both fiscal expansion and temporary operational measures points to a structural gap that additional resourcing alone is unlikely to close.

Mandala’s analysis identifies three high-impact, low-risk entry points for Australian courts: smart scheduling, document review and legal research support. All are court-side operational tools, designed to help courts manage existing workloads more efficiently while reinforcing the integrity of court processes. Modelling suggests that together they could deliver around 95,500 additional case finalisations a year, an 8 per cent uplift on the national caseload of roughly 1.25 million.

• Smart scheduling could contribute 22,500 additional finalisations by converting underused courtroom time into hearings through predictive listing and allocation. District and County courts gain the most.
• AI-assisted document review has the largest impact, contributing 51,000 additional finalisations and saving 1.4 million hours a year across the stages before, during and after trial.
• AI legal research could contribute 22,000 additional finalisations, freeing an estimated 500,000 hours a year by compressing the time spent locating, verifying and synthesising precedent. Superior courts see the largest proportional gain from both document review and legal research.

Read and download the full report here.